VARKEY Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioners, the dependents of a deceased employee, challenge the action of the respondents in retaining the amount deposited as per Ext.P1 Order in the Treasury; which, according to them, was against the specific provisions of Ext.P2 notification and visited them with hardship insofar as the amount deposited carry lesser interest than that in a Nationalized Bank.

(2.) As per the Interim Order of this Court the money, which is due to the petitioners, was directed to be deposited in fixed deposit. The learned counsel for the petitioners submits that though the petitioners' grievance is redressed, the circular, works injustice on the dependents of deceased employee, who raise a claim under the Employees Compensation Act, 1923.

(3.) The facts, with respect to the petitioners, is that the petitioners are the son and wife of a deceased employee, who approached the Commissioner for Workmen's Compensation with an application under section 22 of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923 (as it was named then). Certain amounts were awarded and on deposit, the same was retained in the Government Treasury account. The petitioners contented that by Ext. P2, the Government had amended Rule 10 of the Kerala Workmen's Compensation Rules 1958, facilitating deposit in the State Treasury Savings Bank Scheme or "in any of the Nationalized Bank in such a way that the maximum interest that is available could be secured" (sic). In the case of the petitioners, the amount was retained in the Treasury Savings Bank itself, deeming it to be a Civil Court Deposit, in accordance with Ext.P4 Circular. Ext.P4 is the Circular issued by the Labour Commissioner, in which the objectionable clauses are clauses 1, 4 and 5, which are extracted hereunder: